Blue Thunder
Blue Thunder is a monster truck owned by FELD Entertainment. It is a Ford F-150 currently driven by Matt Cody in the Monster Jam Triple Threat Series. The truck started out as a Built Ford Tough sponsored truck for more than a decade before being turned into a full time Monster Jam concept truck. The truck has also a stacked driver list from its past including Monster Jam Superstars like Linsey Weenk and Tony Farrell. History Blue Thunder debuted on January 6th, 2001, at the Houston Astrodome, originally as a Ford F-250. It was driven by former Grave Digger driver, Lyle Hancock, who drove Wrenchead.com the previous year. He made it to the World Finals Championship Race in Monster Jam World Finals 2, making him the first Grave Digger driver to make it to the finals. But because Blue Thunder flipped over at the end of the final race with Goldberg, it couldn't return for freestyle. A year later in January 2002, at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, MI (the first stop), Tony Farrell drove the truck and competed there. He had an awesome freestyle run but ended with a spectacular crash. Lyle Hancock would drive Blue Thunder again and compete at Monster Jam World Finals 3 and 4. In 2004, Tony Farrell and George Balhan took over driving duties as Lyle retired from the sport in late 2003. In 2005, Norm Miller (previously a driver of Black Smith) became the team's second driver when Balhan left the team to drive the Escalade monster truck. In 2006, Miller retired from the sport leaving Farrell the only one left in Blue Thunder. (Miller would eventually return in 2011, driving Batman) In 2008, former Iron Outlaw driver Linsey Weenk joined the team and ran alongside Farrell. He also established a well documented rivalry with former boss, Jimmy Creten. In 2009, Frank Krmel replaced Farrell in the summer In 2011, Ford had officially ended their Built Ford Tough sponsorship contract with Monster Jam, so the truck continued to run with all Ford references on the truck removed: The Build Ford Tough logo on the hood was replaced with the words "Blue Thunder" as they were seen on the side. Despite Ford being removed as sponsor, the truck still ran a Ford body and continues to run it to this date. That same year, both Linsey Weenk and Frank Krmel left the Blue Thunder team, so Todd LeDuc drove Blue Thunder for the rest of 2011 as Weenk ran his new truck Lucas Oil Crusader while Krmel joined the Advance Auto Parts Grinder. In 2012, LeDuc moved to the new Metal Mulisha truck and the Blue Thunder name was discontinued. In 2013, Blue Thunder was resurrected with a brand new chassis and design, with Dan Evans driving the truck until 2014. In 2014, it was announced that Dalton Millican would be taking over the driving duties and run on the #MoreMonsterJam tour for the 2015 season. In 2015, two Blue Thunder drivers, former driver Tony Farrell and driver Dalton Millican tragically pass away; Farrell from an SUV accident at a concert and Millican from a motorcycle accident. After Millican's death, Alx Danielsson drives the truck during one event as a fill-in driver. Also, less than a six months before his death, Millican and Blue Thunder were invited to the Monster Jam World Finals 16 Young Guns Shootout, although did not win. In 2016, Tyler Menninga drove Blue Thunder in the West More Monster Jam tour and competed in the Monster Jam World Finals 17 Young Guns Shootout and finished second. Todd LeDuc runs the name on the old Metal Mulisha chassis in Europe. In 2017, Matt Cody runs the Blue Thunder body on the Iron Warrior chassis for the Monster Jam Triple Threat Series presented by AMSOIL Central tour and competed in the Monster Jam World Finals 18 Double Down Showdown. The truck also competed in the International Tour on spare CRD chassis' owned by FELD Motorsports under various drivers: Chad Fortune (Australia), Randy Brown (Australia, Europe and Saudi Arabia), Rhianna Buchanan (Singapore). In 2018, Matt Cody runs the Blue Thunder body on the Iron Warrior chassis again for the Monster Jam Triple Threat East Series and competed in the Monster Jam World Finals 19 Double Down Showdown. Travis Groth would later take over driving duties of the truck by running the body on the Trouble Maker chassis for the 3rd quarter of Monster Jam. World Finals Appearances * 2001 - Lyle Hancock * 2002 - Lyle Hancock * 2003 - Lyle Hancock * 2004 - Tony Farrell * 2005 - Tony Farrell * 2006 - Tony Farrell * 2007 - Tony Farrell * 2008 - Linsey Weenk * 2009 - Linsey Weenk * 2010 - Linsey Weenk (encore freestyle: Frank Krmel) * 2013 - Pablo Huffaker * 2015 - Dalton Millican (YGS) * 2016 - Tyler Menninga (YGS) * 2017 - Matt Cody (DDS) * 2018 - Matt Cody (DDS) Trivia *This truck, despite having the same name and color and a very similar design, has no relation to Kevin and Kirk Dabney's Camaro Blue Thunder truck, which competed in the 1980s. However, it is speculated that this Blue Thunder was derived in some way from that of the Dabneys' version. *Although the truck started out in 2001 as a sponsorship truck for Ford, the truck is no longer a sponsor truck today. Ford had ended their sponsorship contract in early 2011 and the truck continued running as a stand-alone truck until its retirement before Monster Jam World Finals 12 and its revival in 2012 and 2013, respectively. *Former full time Blue Thunder driver from 2011, Todd LeDuc, temporarily returned to the team 5 years later for the Monster Jam European Tour in 2016. *Since 2017, the truck currently has no permanent chassis as the name and body is run on the Iron Warrior chassis for the Triple Threat Series tours and various chassis' for international events. *As Blue Thunder was a major sponsor for Ford in its original 10 year run, almost every 2 years the truck would run the design of the newest updated Ford F-250 Gallery Screenshot_2018-11-29-17-53-51.png|Blue Thunder at its debut show without the lightning bolts Screenshot_2018-11-29-17-54-16.png|Ditto Bluethunder 02.jpg|Blue Thunder circa 2001 BT2002.jpg|Lyle Hancock's Blue Thunder circa 2002 Sema03monster.jpg|2001-2003 15875393 10158056933470451 3715462486255660529 o.jpg Screenshot_2018-11-29-16-09-10.png|Blue Thunder circa 2003 blthnd207a4.jpg|ditto vwf550.jpg|Tony Farrell's Blue Thunder in 2004 F158e692-8b45-46c1-9d62-04314e6aca73.jpg|George Balhan's Blue Thunder circa 2004 vabblth205a.jpg|Blue Thunder 2005-2006 Millerfs1.jpg|Norm Miller's Blue Thunder circa 2006 05-monster-jam-georgia-dome-2007-monsters-monthly-grave-digger-maximum-destruction.jpg|Blue Thunder 2007 nasblue207a2.jpg|Chad Tingler's Blue Thunder in 2008 Truck_bluethunder.jpg|Tony Farrell's Blue Thunder circa 2008 BlueThunder.jpg|Linsey Weenk's Blue Thunder circa 2008 2009-monster-truck-jam_1.jpg|Frank Krmel's Blue Thunder circa 2009 Bluethunder2010.jpg|Blue Thunder circa 2010 Screenshot_2018-11-29-17-48-23.png|Linsey Weenk's Blue Thunder for the Monster Jam World Finals 11 Screenshot_2018-11-29-17-48-43.png|Ditto Bluethunder2011.jpg|Blue Thunder circa 2011 without the Ford sponsorship IMG_3307-Small.jpg|Ditto 2363581494_93ae9b16e6_b.jpg|Blue Thunder before adding the logo bluethundertruck.jpg|Blue Thunder's original render for it's re-debut in 2013 bed4bb47-1d96-4407-a199-6d164bddc6d6.jpg|Blue Thunder circa 2013 b0247945-65c7-4b2a-8edf-2b22bde7563c.jpg|Blue Thunder on The Patriot's chassis. btwf.jpg|Blue Thunder on a Racesource Chassis in 2013 BlueThunder14-05-jpg.jpg|circa 2014 Bluethundermmj.jpg|Blue Thunder circa 2015 14639796_424980544293085_4490571833775358639_n.jpg|ditto Monster-Jam-2015-1.jpg|In 2015 on a black chassis 20160318 153410.jpg|Blue Thunder circa 2016 Monster-Jam-18-1.jpg|circa 2016 on Metal Mulisha 15873338_10154580326760073_4746762916445333390_n.jpg|Matt Cody's Blue Thunder in 2017, on Iron Warrior 38833110_977375625779435_3263709566210146304_n.jpg|On Trouble Maker cd470527d892c27b8aa8f02d1064a769--monster-jam-saudi-arabia.jpg|Without the lightning bolts bluethunder_speedster(1).jpg|Blue Thunder Speedster in #MoreMonsterJam events. MJAT_cards_BlueThunder(1).jpg Bluethunder atv(1).jpg|Blue Thunder ATV for #MoreMonsterJam TF-14-Bridge-Direct-Kastors-Korner35.jpg|Cancelled Blue Thunder C3 Construction Monster Jam building set toy. bluethunderrender.jpg|Blue Thunder's Digital Truck Render in Monster Jam: Path of Destruction. Bluethunderpickup.jpg|Ford F-150's decorated to resemble Blue Thunder bluethundertoy2011.jpg|Hot Wheels toy on Ford F-150 casting thundertoy.jpg|2015 Hot Wheels toy Blue_thunder_old_2.jpg|1:24 scale toy Blue_thunder_new.jpg|2015 1:24 scale toy 2010 SE-MD Blue Thunder (3).jpg|2009 Ford F-150 from the 2010 Hot Wheels Monster Duo 2-Pack bluethunderplush.jpg|Plush Truck bluethundertruckinpals.png|Truckin' Pals Cartoon 00019641-2.jpg|Truckin' Pals Wooden toy NVArt Creatures WFTee.jpg|Blue Thunder Monster Jam Creatures art Category:Trucks Category:FELD Motorsports Category:Rodoni Motorsports Category:Current Competing Trucks Category:Vaters Motorsports Category:Mirror Image Racing